So I'm after my first hardware synthesizer, looking to spend no more than £200 ($300).

Want I'm after is that fragile typically analog sound thats hard to replicate with soft synths, the most luck I've had is with Arturia's CS-80V by utilising the wandering sub-oscillators.

I'm not looking for much in terms of functionality, just a Poly synth with some nice filters really.

So far I've been looking out for Redsound's Darkstar, and the Alesis Micron. Both VAs but have that 'edgy' character you don't get in soft synth. As a contrast, I was recently offered an Xiosynth for relatively cheap and found the sound totally lifeless. I'm into Lo-Fi music, so any warbling or inconsistent tuning is a bonus.

I hope this gives enough insight, and can provide some much appreciated suggestions. This is new ground for me so don't bite my head of if some of my information is slightly ignorant.

nogginj you're right, Lo-Fi was probably the wrong terminology to what I'm trying to describe. Basically just a raw sound with intrinsic imperfections that give sonic variation and character.

It is possible to emulate such behaviour in soft synths with pitch modulation and various plug-ins, but IMO I don't think you can sufficiently create the richness of timbre that certain hardware gives.

Appreciate the replies guys, apologies for posting in the wrong place originally!

Thats true enough, and on a budget I wouldn't really expect to get close to an analog. Still these Analog-Modeling ones still have some character of their own, and sound less clinical compared to some of the other digital ones.

dannyfc wrote:]Still these Analog-Modeling ones still have some character of their own, and sound less clinical compared to some of the other digital ones.

Personally I've found it's the opposite as far as sounding clinical goes, my Miniak has a much colder sound than my TX81Z for example. I haven't checked it against anything more current like a Blofeld though. Not to say the Miniak/Micron/Ion is a bad series of synths, quite the contrary, I agree it's got it's own character, not bad, just different. Speaking of, there are/were a few stores in the US selling Miniaks at rock-bottom prices. If it's a VA you want and you're on a budget, that might be the one to look into if you can find a place that still has them for cheap and will ship to the UK.

I'm totally biased, but within your price range you might consider the Korg R3. It has a feature called "Analog Tuning" that applies a random tonal offset (within a controllable range) to your notes. When you use this along with other features like sample+hold and filters you can make a sound that really trembles randomly like an old voltage-controlled synth. This effect can be applied to whatever base tone you want (even other instruments by using the audio-in as a waveform!) You really can't go wrong with the R3 as a starting synth unless you've been playing keys all your life and need more than 8-note poly.